IT IS customary for Tour professionals to autograph a golf ball for the walking scorers and marker but Texas-based Scot Steven Young gave each a sleeve of brand-new Callaways after the first round in his maiden USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
Young was in good spirits despite carding no birdies in a five-over-par 77 in hot but testing windy conditions along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in upstate Wisconsin.
Young's wife and three children had travelled up from Midland, Texas, where the 38-year-old has been a club pro for nine years while his parents George and Christine journeyed from Inverallochy, and where Young intends to return over the Christmas period.
“It was a little bit of a struggle out there today and, while I putted well, I just didn’t hit it that great and just tried to hang in there. However, it’s tough walking off with no birdies,” he said.
“There weren’t any disasters and it was just one of those days where nothing much clicked but ‘hey’, I had so much fun out there today with a big family entourage following me around."
It was Young’s third appearance in a Major but a full 17 years after contesting the second of two straight Open Championships.
Scotland’s highest world-ranked player, Marc Warren, was in a better position but not all that delighted with a level-par 72, a round that started with three birdies in the first six holes but ended with three bogeys in the closing seven.
“I was three under par after 10 holes so to finish level leaves a sour taste in my mouth,” Warren said. "The thing is, I drove the ball well and my iron play was good but then I just felt I was throwing away shots coming in, and then to bogey the last two holes was very annoying.”
Stephen Gallacher continues to struggle and looks already in danger of missing the halfway cut in signing for a four-over par 76 and 10 shots adrift of Dustin Johnson.
It is the sixth straight occasion Gallacher has not broken 70 on the first day of the USPGA and, in a Major, he has had three sub-70s in 15 rounds.
The Scot was one under par through 11 holes but then completed his last seven holes in five over par, including taking a double bogey at the par-three 17th when he found the rough some 30 yards short of the hole but only managed to advance his second shot some 15 yards.
Martin Laird was in a similar situation as Warren to be one under heading to the 12th hole but then proceeded to play the last seven holes in five over par, including taking a double at his last, the downhill par-four ninth, also in a four-over-par 76.
Colin Montgomerie finished his round in the same fashion as Laird, bogey and double bogey, to record a score of 78.
Russell Knox and Richie Ramsay, Scotland's other two in a strong field of seven tartan players, were each out in the afternoon half of the draw.
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